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Tricia Benitez's Bio

Tricia's family was no stranger to addiction. Her father suffered from alcoholism, her mother admits to doing cocaine on several occasions, and her brother struggled for a long time with drugs. These active addictions were also noticed by the authorities. Tricia's mother left her when she was an infant, trying to give her away like a puppy to a distant family in Florida. Tricia's father had an addiction that resulted in Tricia being a taken away by the state as a child. Orphanage was the child's version of a jail. Tricia was fortunate to have a sister who was 18 years older, and she had the ability to get Tricia out of the orphanage. Her sister played such an instrumental part of her life by helping to raise Tricia, as well as continuously being supportive of her career in the midst of a very dysfunctional family. Tricia's brother lost his battle from addiction, going in and out of treatment centers numerous times himself. On June 8, 2002 his landlord found him dead in his apartment due to a drug overdose.

Tricia's dad demonstrated how to live a gypsy life, so she found it "normal" to shack up with lots of people. In her early twenties, she found herself in a horrible relationship. Tricia ran away and turned to Meth to escape. When she finally escaped it was with a gun to her head, $100 to her name, four bags of clothes, and her dog named Pink.

Tricia has completely turned her life around since that day. She works as a Treatment Specialist for Addiction Campuses in Nashville, Tennessee. She is on the front lines of the opioid epidemic and other forms of addiction as a resource for people to get help instead of landing in jail or worse. Tricia has helped almost 1,500 people get the help and treatment they need for their addictions over the last 6 years. Tricia shares her own powerful story of addiction and dysfunctional relationships with students all across the country to ensure that they get the help they need for themselves or others on their campus, as well as showing the students what a healthy relationship should look like.

PRESENTATION: Love You More: Healthy Relationships and Self Care

Good relationships in college are possible by being truthful with yourself in what you're looking for, without feeling as if you need to change someone in order for them to fit. By hearing Tricia's past experiences, students will engage in activities to identify what they won't tolerate in a relationship and what are their requirements in relationships. Students will learn to spot red flags in their relationships such as communication/social media signs, signs of insecurity, money signs, and sex signs. Love doesn't hurt. People who don't know how to love you can hurt you.

We should learn from the past relationships that didn't work. When it's right, it's beautiful, welcoming, and warm. It starts by knowing what you are worth.

Learning Objectives:
By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Define and recognize dysfunctional relationships - hopefully before it starts.
2. Explore how to stand up for your values and beliefs in a relationship and say no when there is a conflict in those values and beliefs.
3. Identify and describe healthy relationships.
4. Learn to identify and listen to the red flags in any relationship.
5. Assemble a self-reconstruction plan following a toxic relationship
6. Summarize how to be a good partner in an existing relationship.
7. Outline steps for self care while in college.

Tricia's interview on Fraternity Foodie

PRESENTATION: How to Battle Addictions in Your Organization or Your Community

Once her bad relationship ended, Tricia's new partner showed her how to smoke Meth. After dropping down to 120 pounds and getting blemishes all over her face from the drug, Tricia realized that the drug would eventually kill her. She walked right back to her old relationship because that was better than the addiction to the drug. Tricia's sister didn't understand how she would use drugs when it had already taken the life of their brother who died of a drug overdose. Was it related to Tricia's mom trying to give her away as a child? Was it from watching her father struggle with self harm and the constant fighting with all of the women in his life?

Little did Tricia know that she was addicted to creating a positive life for herself with a home and family, but she was using the drug to escape everything that was going wrong in her life. In order to get better, Tricia was also going to have to treat the underlying problem that caused her to turn to drugs in the first place.

Learning Objectives:
By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe when you or someone you know is in an active addiction.
2. Investigate what is the "why" to get out of the addiction.
3. Demonstrate how to identify the real underlying problem.
4. Summarize the treatment and therapy options that are available on your campus and in your community.

Hit the play button on the video below to watch Tricia on a recent TV news segment!

Hit the play button on the video below to watch Tricia on a recent TV news segment!